Hi Brandon,

There are plenty of people who can't tolerate steroids. You are not alone in this. We all have things we can't or don't want to try. For me it's sympathetic nerve blocks. I scar down every little insult, it's half my problem, so I fear doing that at a nerve ganglia.

You will pretty much always find steroids involved in peripheral nerve blocks which can have some benefit for some people while providing fairly minimal systemic exposure. The use of oral steroids in CRPS is primarily early on and only for a brief time to bring down inflammation and swelling. You are not missing out on a long term treatment option by any means. For some people they can help break part of the cycle without being invasive. They are no panacea though and there are many options out there. Free radical scavengers like 50% DMSO applied topically and N acetyl cysteine orally are also recommended to bring down inflammation. Fish oil and vitamin C also help with this.

Other treatments like infusions (bisphospinates, lidocaine, ketamine, even IVIG) are used as are oral calcium channel blockers, TCAs and antiepileptics and HBOT and Calmare. Plain old epsom salt soaks and topical lidocaine are helpful. There are plenty of things to work through that may help. Sadly there is no magic bullet and everyone responds differently so it just takes trial and error. Keep at it, sometimes it takes a while to find what works. That's why we are always throwing every idea possible out there! Do Whatever works!

take care,
Littlepaw